The Centre has notified 40 questions for the upcoming Census 2027, including caste and place of Covid vaccination, marking the first time caste details will be collected as part of the decadal exercise. The population enumeration will be a fully digital process, with an option for self-enumeration.
The government on Sunday gave a strong push to upgradation and expansion of healthcare infrastructure, medical education and pharma sector with the Union Budget 2026-27 announcing a slew of steps, including those aimed at making India a global hub for allied healthcare professionals and biopharma manufacturing.
Around 24 paise will come from borrowings and other liabilities, 10 paise from non-tax revenue like disinvestment, and 2 paise from non-debt capital receipts, the Budget documents showed.
Officials said the government is keen to conform to the convention of the Union Budget for 2026-2027 being presented on February 1 despite it falling on a Sunday in 2026.
This year's Economic Survey and the Union Budget were more closely followed for more reasons than one.
What items did Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman make cheaper?
Sitharaman took charge of the Finance Ministry on May 31, 2019, and has steered the economy through the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical turmoil, making India the fastest-growing major economy in the world.
'If you go by the capital expenditure, this is a good defence budget. But we will have to see if the government can keep defence spending at 2 per cent or higher in 2027-2028.'
The Indian government's announcement of 10,000 additional seats in medical colleges next year, part of a plan to add 75,000 seats over five years, has been welcomed by education experts and stakeholders. The move aims to address the shortage of medical professionals and reduce the outflow of Indian medical students to other countries. The budget also includes infrastructure expansion at five new IITs to accommodate 6,500 more students and an allocation of Rs 500 crore to set up a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for education.
No income tax relief, but compliance burden eased for youth and middle class through lower TCS.
If the government wishes that protests like the one that took place at Jantar Mantar during the last few weeks should not recur, it must refocus its energies on jobs, not just the examination system, points out A K Bhattacharya.
Of the Rs 31,820.80 crore allocated to central sector schemes and projects, only Rs 11,868.05 crore was utilised, according to the revised estimates.
The challenge thrown by the youth movement creates the opportunity for a more consequential debate on India's economic trajectory because it must remain centered on India's youth as its driving impulse, asserts former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday makes history as she presents a record ninth consecutive Budget that is expected to unveil measures to sustain growth momentum, maintain fiscal discipline, and contain reforms that could buffer the economy from global trade frictions, including US tariffs.
The health sector has been allocated Rs 89,155 crore in the Union Budget 2023-24, a hike of around 13 per cent over Rs 79,145 crore allocated in 2022-23, with the government also announcing a mission to eliminate sickle cell anaemia by 2047.
'The BJP has all the instruments with them and they do have a sense of purpose, so I don't think there will be a challenge.'
Will Finance Minister Arun Jaitley live up to the expectations of India Inc and individual taxpayers? Watch all the action here live from Parliament.
This is the first Budget in my memory of Budgets over the last half a century which has embraced upfront, enthusiastically and emphatically, technology, modernity and fiscal sobriety, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stating he needs to change his "dil ka angle" (heart's perspective) rather than camera angles to connect with Gen Z, following his Instagram outreach to student protesters. She also condemned the government's handling of student protests and the widespread issue of paper leaks.
Nirmala Sitharaman moved into her Kartavya Bhavan office on October 2, in time to get the work on the Budget 2026-2027 going.
Here are the key numbers to watch out for in the Union Budget for 2025-26:
In the throes of a financial crisis, the state's ruling Congress government has little to be triumphant about as Assembly elections approach next year, points out Aditi Phadnis.
The Union Budget for 2026-27 is expected to sketch out a road map for trebling the cooperative sector's contribution to the Indian economy over the next decade, with the aim of bringing 500 million people within its ambit, in line with the objectives of the National Cooperative Policy, 2025.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget on Tuesday as the Monsoon Session of Parliament gets underway next week with the united opposition set to corner the National Democratic Alliance government on issues ranging from the NEET paper leak case and railway safety.
A Joint Committee of Parliament has deferred the adoption of a draft report on a bill proposing the suspension, not permanent removal, of the prime minister, Union ministers, and chief ministers if detained for 30 days on serious criminal charges, opting for more consultations.
The Budget emerges as a measured, credible and forward-looking policy document that reinforces India's commitment to remaining a stable, reform-oriented economy amid an increasingly fragmented global landscape, says A Balasubramanian.
India is a global leader in software development services, IT enabled services, knowledge process outsourcing services and contract R&D services relating to software development, Sitharaman said noting these business segments are quite inter-connected with each other.
The sources also said that the Budget session of Parliament is likely to start from March 12.
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi has launched a scathing attack on the Modi government, accusing it of responding to student demands for accountability and educational reforms with 'cowardice and wanton cruelty,' treating them as 'enemies of the nation.' She further alleged that the government has degraded India's education landscape and routinely chooses violence over dialogue.
The ministry of finance will kickstart its massive budgetary exercise from October 15.
The Union finance ministry has kicked off the exercise for preparation of the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2012-13 and has asked all ministries to rush proposals by October 31 for inclusion in the second supplementary budget for 2011-12 to be presented in the winter session of Parliament.
After the last Budget's announcement of a major tax relief for those earning an annual salary of less than Rs 12 lakh, there is not much that individuals can look forward to in the forthcoming Budget, points out A K Bhattacharya.
The forthcoming Budget could think of maintaining public capital expenditure at 3 per cent so that domestic resources are available for private investments, points out N R Bhanumurthy.
Bharat Electronics, Power Grid, NTPC and HDFC Bank were among the other major gainers. However, Infosys, Tata Steel, Eternal and Tech Mahindra were among the laggards.
CA Sumeet Mehta analyses the Union Budget 2026-2027, identifying key positives and negatives.
The 2026-27 Budget, seeking to harmonise the government's imperative to grant certainty while ensuring a rational tax policy, had several notable announcements to usher in halcyon days, says Mukesh Butani.
The Budget emphasises on capacity building and empowerment of marginalised sections of society including farmers.
The best course for the government at this time would be to tighten the seat belt a little more, without compromising on its investments in creating better infrastructure and giving a push to privatisation, points out A K Bhattacharya.
Various reforms, including GST, labour codes, and quality control order, have been rolled out since August 15.
Apple Inc, which had planned to shift only 10 per cent of its global production base from China to India with respect to iPhones at the end of FY26, is currently churning out one out of every four iPhones in the world from India.
